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Ligety Honored as Olympic SportsMan of the Year

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USSA

2013-10-24 09:25

Ted Ligety celebrates three gold medals at the FIS Alpine World Ski Championships in Schladming - first time in 45 years. (Getty Images/AFP-Samuel Kubani)

COLORADO SPRINGS, CO (Oct. 24) – The U.S. Olympic Committee (USOC) has named Ted Ligety (Park City, UT) 2012-13 Olympic SportsMan of the Year, its highest annual individual athlete honor. The 2006 Olympic gold medalist produced a historic season that resulted in a three gold medals at the 2013 FIS Alpine World Ski Championship and six Audi FIS Alpine World Cup giant slalom victories en route to the fourth World Cup giant slalom title of his career. With his triple gold, he became the first man in 45 years to win three or more gold in one World Championships. The award has been presented to the top overall male and female athletes from USOC member organizations since 1974.

HIGHLIGHTS

Two-time Olympian Ted Ligety (Park City, UT) was named Olympic SportsMan of the Year by the U.S. Olympic Committee, the organization’s top annual individual athlete honor.

Ligety will be honored Tuesday, Oct. 29 at a ceremony in New York City’s Times Square during the USOC’s 100 Days Out festivities.

Ligety is the first male alpine skier to win the award. Lindsey Vonn, Picabo Street and Tamara McKinney have previously won.

Ligety is being honored along with Katie Ledecky (Olympic SportsWoman of the Year), the U.S. Men’s Doubles Tennis Team (Olympic Team of the Year), Monica Bascio (Paralympic SportsWoman of the Year), Raymond Martin (Paralympic SportsMan of the Year) and the U.S. Men’s 4x100-meter Track & Field Team (Paralympic Team of the Year).

His historic 2013 season produced three gold medals at the FIS Alpine World Ski Championship and six Audi FIS Alpine World Cup giant slalom victories en route to the fourth World Cup giant slalom title of his career.

Ligety’s triple gold at the World Championships had not happened in 45 years since Jean Claude Killy won four gold medals at the 1968 Worlds, which also served as the Olympics at the time.

With his six World Cup victories, Ligety joined Swedish great Ingemar Stenmark as the only man to win six or more giant slalom races in a single season.

Many of Ligety’s wins were by record margins including a massive 2.75 second win at the opening race of the 2013 season in Soelden, Austria. It was the biggest margin of victory in 34 years.

The 2014 World Cup season begins Oct. 27 on the Rettenbach glacier in Soelden, the official European Home Base of the U.S. Ski Team, with live television coverage on the Universal Sports Network.

QUOTESTed LigetyIt’s definitely a huge honor to get an award like this. It’s really cool to be considered among the top athletes in the U.S. I’m innately super competitive. Because I didn’t have the best physical attributes, I had to be a hard worker. And not having that success made me become a harder worker than I would have been if I was good when I was 13 years old. I think that’s something that, as I grew older, worked to my advantage.

Bill Marolt, USSA President and CEOThis award is a well-deserved testament to the amount of time, energy and hard work Ted has devoted to making himself Best in the World.